Has anybody tried using these at sea? I used them years back on rivers. I imagine they wouldn't be up to much at sea being flat bottomed. I was wondering about one for inshore work in reasonable weather arond the West coast of Scotland, fishing and the like.

I once had to paddle one across Loch Ewe (long before the days of HSE considerations.....) and it was effing terrifying. Wind and waves would make it spin like a top, so it was next to impossible to steer, even though we were fairly competent at boat-handling. Lacked sufficient buoyancy, so after one particular wave filled us up, we ended up with about 3 inches of freeboard and in danger of sinking like a stone. Had to bail for our survival for the whole of the five hours it took for the wind to bring us close to the shore - we were lucky it wasn't an offshore wind.

Hmm, the responses are much as I expected. I did try using a civvy lightweight flat bottom boat in a sea loch recently and it was a bit of a nightmare too.
I'll have a look at what else is available. Thanks for the contributions.

been to sea in one off margate as part of a stab assualt pioneer course
not exactly sea worthy but did the job just. had the mickey taken by the RNLI " don' t worry lads wewillbe just over here if you need us
had life jackets on so could have always swum ashore.
I sure you could use one but then you could run a marathon in army issue green trainers but why would you want to ?
about as sea worthy as an inflatable dingy brought from a seaside shop with the problem that its made of steel http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fletcher-Speed-Boat_W0QQitemZ330074913655QQihZ014QQcategoryZ1296QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

been to sea in one off margate as part of a stab assualt pioneer course
not exactly sea worthy but did the job just. had the mickey taken by the RNLI " don' t worry lads wewillbe just over here if you need us
had life jackets on so could have always swum ashore.
I sure you could use one but then you could run a marathon in army issue green trainers but why would you want to ?
about as sea worthy as an inflatable dingy brought from a seaside shop with the problem that its made of steel http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fletcher-Speed-Boat_W0QQitemZ330074913655QQihZ014QQcategoryZ1296QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Click to expand...

That reminds me I did the Broadstairs Harbour show by driving one from Margate round to the harbour. I had one on board for the trip and picked up a half section of the rocks below the cliffs around the corner. Killed the speed but for a TA beach assault very funny! We were baling as much as firing on the way in and out and it was a calm day!